This is exactly why Jeff Atwood was wrong. If you can solve your own problem instead of having to communicate it to someone else, you've taken away 75% of the impediment to a solution.
All dependent on context. In the context of a team, one can rarely solve all problems by herself. More importantly, it can cause greater disfunction when work isn't coordinated/communicated appropriately. The whole point of working in a team is to get more work done more efficiently because the work load is shared and each member focuses on her specific skill, and doesn't do everything.
Yes, context is key. My implied context was small problems that can be solved with just a little bit of programming. If the problem is big enough to require a team then a different approach is required.
If you're working on a problem that you can solve alone, you need a bigger problem.
People deal with small problems or questions all the time. If you can answer your own question using less effort than it would require you to communicate the question to someone else, you're ahead.
no, what atwood was saying is that if you're dealing with a problem todo with FOO, learning about BAR won't help you.